After the Storm
by 1755
Summary: A study of the years after the war. Glimpses into 27 characters' lives. M for implied rape, self-harm, death, alcoholism, drugs, implied f/f. Requests for more characters welcome.


LAVENDER BROWN

When she looks in the mirror, a mirror which had once proclaimed her the fairest of them all, she sees that it now betrays her. She thinks, then, that if she is not to be beautiful anymore, then at least she can be thin.

ALICIA SPINNET

A stiff leg and distant, bloodcurdling echos plague her and prevent her from doing what she's always wanted to do. But that doesn't matter. Katie survived. That's what's important.

DENNIS CREEVEY

He laughs too much when it's not even funny, he sleeps too much when he's not even tired, he's drinking too much and it's not even dark yet. His smile is too wide for it to be genuine, and no one has even noticed.

ANTHONY GOLDSTEIN

He's often found in dirty english pubs at night, on stage with a guitar in his arms, a glass by his foot and a cigarette between his lips. His breath smells of sweet tobacco and cheap beer, and when he goes home after, he does so alone. Always alone. Only his bottle keeps him company now.

GEORGE WEASLEY

He's so lost, all the time. The haunted, faraway look in his eyes never disappears, nor does the feeling of falling deeper and deeper into an impossible abyss.

OLIVER WOOD

Flying is good. Flying makes the pain tolerable. Saving the quaffle gives him a semblance of control. Up here, he doesn't have to think about how he couldn't save anything else.

SUSAN BONES

She looks around her home — a crackling fireplace, a husband reading beside it. She rubs her stomach lightly, still flat but soon to be round with child. She sets down the letter she was reading from her parents, sent this morning, as she hears a knock at the door. It must be her sister and nephew. She feels guilty.

HANNAH ABBOTT

She's going to help him, the boy with the broken eyes, missing fingers and dirt under his nails. She's going to help him and heal him because he needs someone to depend on.

Hufflepuffs are nothing if not determined.

TERRY BOOT

Books have always helped him escape from reality and forget his problems. The ones in books were always so much worse than the ones at home.

Now, no matter what he reads, no book has horrors in it that surpass the ones he's seen.

KATIE BELL

 _I can't see_ , she whispered into the sudden darkness, and a soft hand held hers until the pain subsided to a dull, ever-present ache.

Now, privately, she thinks of it as _her_ darkness.

ANGELINA JOHNSON

What's worse — not knowing that you're chasing after a ghost or being aware and doing it anyway?

Having a ghost to chase after.

HARRY POTTER

He often thinks about how he'd see himself in the Mirror of Erised now. He's never come up with a proper answer.

FAYE DUNBAR

The girl everyone forgot, for once returning the favour. A blank mind is something many wish for these days, she's been told, but who would wish this upon themselves?

DAPHNE GREENGRASS

Lonely, she clings desperately to her beauty. It's the only thing she has left. That and the money tucked haphazardly in her lacy black lingerie.

Her father would disown her if he was still alive. Her sister already has.

LUNA LOVEGOOD

Reality is a hard thing to face when you've been living in a dream for so long. She tells herself that she's not running away, she's escaping. She's not lost, she's exploring.

ARTHUR WEASLEY

He holds onto his family and keeps it together. Or, he tries to. How can you keep something together that is already broken and shattered into a million pieces?

MICHAEL CORNER

He's been in pain for so long, now that his wounds have healed, he's found that the only way he can feel alive again is when he's hurting.

No one sees the new scars.

BLAISE ZABINI

Everyone tells him he should become a Healer. Ha. _I only want to cure illnesses, not people_ , he always answers. _Things get too complicated when there's people involved_ , he says.

 _I get attached_ , he thinks.

ROLF SCAMANDER

She saved him that day, she with the long blonde hair and dreaming eyes. She saved him, and now he sees her everywhere. _Where are you?_ He can't even remember her name.

PARVATI PATIL

 _You're lucky_ , they say to her softly, again and again, always slightly in awe. _Lucky to be alive._ Lucky? _I was sorry to hear about your sister._ She'd rather be dead.

FLEUR DELACOUR

A new life, growing steadily inside her. A life which sprung from loss and sorrow and unimaginable pain, and victory. _Une victoire_. The beautiful baby, though not yet born, is already radiating light and hope and awakening everyone around it.

THEODORE NOTT

He's a hardened criminal now, or something. Really, the Dementors in Azkaban aren't so bad if you have no happy memories to begin with.

SEAMUS FINNIGAN

He doesn't let anyone touch him — not his mother nor anyone else, and he hasn't had a lover in years. He can't anymore. He feels so dirty – those Death Eater hands that touched him made him dirty. His skin is filthy and wrong and he wishes, more than anything, that he could leave it behind and start over.

CHO CHANG

 _I'm only human._

PANSY PARKINSON

Vodka, molly, and a stranger's arms: all she needs to try and forget what she was forced to do.

MOLLY WEASLEY

She found one son and lost another.

She nearly lost herself.

DEAN THOMAS

He hasn't picked up a paint brush, hasn't brought a blank canvas to life with vibrant colour, hasn't _let go_ in years. He's living in black and white, with all too much grey hidden in the shadows.


End file.
